Lin Anxin, curled up in Song Kexin’s arms, shuddered: She was the one who lied. She had offended some hooligans at school and, this afternoon, Yan Xueqi brought her gang to pick on her and even asked her to meet by the artificial lake. She assumed they were just putting up a front but they were going to crop off her hair and throw paint on her. Lin Anxin, startled, started backing up from them and ended up slipping and falling into the artificial lake.
Lin Anxin dared not tell the truth right now. Had she said it, her mother and grandmother would, doubtless, asked about what had happened. She had always put up a front that she was a nice and docile child in front of her family. She didn’t want them to know that she had conflicts with other students and over that kind of issues no less.
Over on this side, Lin Xi was boxed on her ear again. Half of her brain rang from the blow.
This time, she was struck by Song Kexin who just stood up.
“Lin Xi, how could you talk like that?” Song Kexin had a fierce look in her eyes.
Xu Jiaofeng sneered as well. “How are you so vicious at such a young age?”
“Who’s the vicious one here?” Lin Xi shouted out before she turned and ran upstairs.
“She had completely lost it! Li- ma, stop her!”
Xu Jiaofeng had the maid block Lin Xi but Song Kexin stopped her. “Forget it, Ma.
“Give her some time to reflect upon herself. As for Xinxin, we should have a doctor come and check her out.”
Xu Jiaofeng’s attention was turned immediately when Lin Anxin was brought up. She nodded and said, “Yes, we should have her checked out. The weather is getting cold and we wouldn’t want her to get sick.”
Xu Jiaofeng walked over and stroked Lin Anxin on her head. “Poor Xinxin to have something so awful happened to you. You must let grandma know if you don’t feel well, okay?”
Lin Anxin nodded docilely.
“Good girl.”
Xu Jiaofeng looked in the direction where Lin Xi ran in and sneered, “She lives in our house and we give her good food and drinks. How did we end up raising such a heartless, vicious thing!”
“I’ve told you. You will not get good fruit from bad seeds no matter how hard you try!”
That made Song Kexin felt awkward.
“Ma, that’s enough.”
Xu Jiaofeng stopped awkwardly after seeing Song Kexin’s face had dropped. She turned and asked the servant to fetch the family doctor.
***
On the other side, Lin Xi retuned to her room and lifted her hands to wipe the tears that she had stopped from falling.
Her cold and wet school uniform made her face hurt. Lin Xi finally changed out of her wet school uniform expressionlessly.
This very moment, a piece of nice-folded and completely soaked paper fell out from the pocket of her uniform.
It was the report card from this month’s examinations.
Lin Xi unfolded the report card and carefully laid it out on the table. She spaced out while looking at her own report card – she ranked #1 in her entire grade. She had wanted to show them when she reached home.
That being said, they probably wouldn’t care about it anyway.
Ever since she was a child, Lin Xi couldn’t understand why no matter how hard she tried and how outstanding she was, she was never able to earn the approval of her family. From what she could recall, her father barely ever talked to at all. Her grandmother was crazy double standard between Lin Anxin and herself. Her mother, on the other hand, always gave her a strange and complicated look. It was as though she was a something subpar. She was always like a stranger in this house and Lin Anxin was the one that was a part of this family.
Lin Xi didn’t understand that. Didn’t everyone said that an outstanding child would be loved? She had already done so much.
***
Lin Xi’s thoughts were interrupted by a sneeze. She shuddered, held on tight to her sleepwear, jogged over to her bed, and rolled herself up with the blanket.
Her icy-cold body finally felt a bit of warmth after a long while.